The music industry from the 90s and 00s was awful

[Boybandsnowmanbands]

I've been watching the boyband documentary on BBC iplayer and all these young aspirational naive lads were just chewed up and spat out by such a ruthless industry. Watching these grown men in their 40s and 50s almost without exception breaking down talking about what they went through is quite a disturbing watch. I wish I could say it is confined to the past but looking at current boy bands and what happened with Liam Payne it feels like no lessons have ever been learned.

I was in Central Europe then, what was "served" to us was utter crap.
I remember my female/girl friends fawning over one particular group, which was just incomprehensible to me. Always preferred a good book.
Oh, and my heart bled for these young millionaires (not).

You need to watch this then if you think they all became millionaires. East 17 were completely rinsed

Yes on £150 a week!

I don't agree with the treatment they received, though it was made worse by the introduction of more tv channels (so more shows to go on) and then the internet and social media.

My point is not that they are a boyband who can play. It's that they are not a boyband at all. A boyband has a very specific definition. Which McFly doesn't fit.

Just because they're "boys" doesn't make them a boyband. They're a band. No different to Green Day or Arctic Monkeys or The Killers. Tom Fletcher himself has said in interviews that he hates McFly being called a boyband. They're musicians in a band.

Watch Popstar Academy on Netflix if you think it's any different now. It is, and always has been, brutal.

Yes the difference is nowadays these boys are told to talk about it and cry to the camera instead of manning up.

Even into the 10's the industry was outwardly brutal with Cowell telling girls they were fat etc.

Agreed! I was a 90s teen and there was much better stuff to listen to. Like Oasis, Nirvana, Prodigy, Fat Boy Slim, Sleeper, Elastica, REM, Divine Comedy and the Happy Mondays to name a few.

Appreciate that it's a harsh industry but looking back at Simon Cowell sitting there smugly pulling someone's appearance (and self esteem) to shreds in the name of entertainment, and not that long ago either is quite shocking.

You just have look at how dysfunctional the Jacksons were to see that it's been going on for a lot longer.

Not just boybands in the 90's. I watched a recent documentary with Roger Taylor talking about Queen. In 1975, the band were established act with a slew of hits under their belt, but somehow, they couldn’t even afford new drumsticks. All the while, “you see them [the management] running around in stretch limos and think ‘hang on there’s something not right here!'”

The thread title says 'the music industry of the 90s and 00s'. That doesn't suggest it's just about boybands

Yes. It's no wonder those of us who were teens in the early-mid 2000s felt crap about ourselves- shows like X Factor ripping apart girl's appearances as you say, lads mags, mags like Heat ripping female celebs to shreds for having cellulite or being a little overweight, sites that "rated" your looks, the size zero trend- I could go on! Everything seemed to be about looks when I think to back then (even in the indie scene, which i was into, there seemed to be an emphasis on looks and body type). Don't think it's changed much, especially with social media.

At the height of 1D fame they played a venue near enough to me and I watched an interview, I wasn't a fan just vaguely interested. They were talking about their schedule over the next few days and i remember them saying they were doing a breakfast show in another city in the middle of a three night run in my city. I remember saying to Dh, wait a minute they don't get off stage til 11 and they need to be wherever by 5 or 6am to be on air for 7 then back for sound checks etc. When do they sleep? We ended up talking through what they had said and it didn't add up at all, they were scheduled for what seemed like 72 without breaks. I remember saying to DH they will end up on drugs because even an energetic young man needs rest.

For many years I've believed the likes of Louie Walsh and Simon Cowell are monsters. I don't think much of Jedward but didn't Louie say something like yeah they are idiots but they made me a million. Absolute scum bag

The Motown artists were similarly exploited in the 1960s. Florence Ballard of The Supremes drank herself to death.

I don't hold with the argument about 'real musicians'. Singers are real musicians. Just because you don't play/write your songs (and Gary Barlow very much did!), it doesn't mean you're 'worse' than bands who did.

I had a soft spot for Take That/E17/5ive, but preferred indie/Britpop at the time (thought I was cool 😎).

It was the nicest interview I'd ever seen with Robbie. He seems to have finally found some peace

I once worked with an actor who had been in a boy band that didn't make it. He said their management made them get tattoos and pretend to be straight (they were all gay). Their contract meant that even if they had made it they'd have made almost no money. It's a horrible, horrible industry.

I don't think it's just the music industry but fame in general. Have any of you seen the interviews recently with muscular male actors (famous ones, but my knowledge is so shit I have instantly forgotten who) who go through severe dehydration for 3 days including no water at all for 24 hours before a topless scene is shot just so that their skin is so thin from dehydration that they look ripped? Like how is this shit legal?!

Yeah, I think that people are very inconsistent about this, and unfair. It's like being sniffy that most actors aren't writing their own films or plays. Being a writer is great. Being an actor is great, being a singer is great. Being a great drummer is great!

There are plenty of great writers who aren't' great singers or performers, and need someone else to bring their songs to life.

Now, lots of what comes out of the commercial music industry is just fluff, but it's not because the singers don't write their own songs.

I saw Hugh Jackman talking about this when filming Le Miz. Just in case you wondered why the singing was so shit.

No one made him though. I think a lot of actors can have rather self-centered qualities.

The problem with the music industry is that you're abused, or the abuser, or both. Very few people avoid it. It's always been that way.

Yeah the dehydration thing is a trick from body building. It's fashionable among the male actors at the moment because of the superhero films, but I don't think anyone is forcing them to do it—the body building is a point of pride, a lot of them tweet about it. It's not exploitation in the same vein as the way actresses like Judy Garland were controlled and abused by the studio system back in the "Golden Age".

The music wasn't that great then. 60s to 80s was the best era, musically.

While it's true that other "show business" are also bad, the pop industry deals in incredibly young people - children- who have a very short shelf life. Possibly the closest age correlation is most sports but I think that's less obviously exploitative but has different pressures.

Pop industry as a specific part of the music industry.

It was a very moving documentary, really felt for the guys as so many of them seemed so broken and vulnerable still. Nigel (Take That's ex manager) probably wasn't even that bad compared to some of them. Simon Cowell was just like "if you don't want the lifestyle be an accountant instead"

I think the Backstreet boys were ripped off by their manager too, and S club 7 never made much, Paul ended up selling his Brit award. When I was a teen and into my early 20s I really wanted to be famous, but now I know the price isn't worth it. Thank god I never had any talent!

On a lighter note Barlow was hilarious (not in a good way) with how serious he always was back then. When they cut to him after he lost out to the little kids with his Christmas song he wrote at age 15 his face looked like absolute thunder! 😆